Are biz-jets covered by ETOPS regulations? I was under the impression that only applied to 121 operators. I think if the airplane is operated under part 91 you can do whatever you want. I thought you could hop the pond in a 182 if you felt like it.

I would believe you are correct. Besides, do you know how prohibitively expensive it would be if Globals/GIV/GV's etc, as well as their crews and MX programs had to comply with ETOPS requirments.

For some corp flight departments, probably not a concern. For others, it just wouldn't work.

I think many of them will go to China and India...

Just where did this rumor get started? I used to walk around saying things like that based on what I had read here and other places, and most people I've talked to who have flown the Metro say it was easy, or at least not that bad. So which is it?

The future of the 50's is in China!

I heard the autothrottle mod is hugely expensive and probably not feasible on a CRJ.

they might also not be a bad deal in Europe. TNT currently uses a bunch of BAE-146's for short range cargo, but those airplanes have side cargo doors and i doubt its cost effective to modify CRJ's to have a cargo door and get certification

They have the same CASM issues in Europe that exist in the US. RJs are not nearly as prevelant there as they are in the US. Anyway, the autothrottle thing won't be happening. It is expensive and hardly worth it on airframes that will not be worth much soon. Did Bombardier offer this on the CRJ-200? For that matter, was it offered on any CRJ model?

Safe Flight which is located on HPN offers an "AutoPower" autothrottle conversion for the Challenger 604 and 850...which is the CRJ.

Combine that with a Rockwell Collins HGS 2100 (providing Cat IIIa approaches), the large aux fuel tank and a refurbished executive interior and you have a highly capable, customized large-cabin bizjet with transatlantic range for a fraction of the acquisition cost of a comparable airframe. Even without the autothrottles and/or HGS it would be cheaper and nearly as capable.

DOC will be higher that comparable large cabin bizjets as the aircraft can't really take advantage of lower full burns above FL400 and doesn't carry the fuel for true international range...but you could easily get into the upper 30s on a long segment and there is a plentiful supply of parts and labor supporting the airframe.

but who cares if the pilots get autothrottles or not? sure the pilots care, but nobody is really asking them. as for CatIII approaches in a CRJ, that sounds scary. with a x-wind the autopilot will land in a crab on a true zero zero coupled approach. thats nuts with as low as the wings are to the ground and how weak that gear is.

I've flown three aircraft that can autoland (88,757,767) and none of them land in a crab during an autoland.